# Do radio people have any brains whatsoever? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 26, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763 "2005-01-26T14:56:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/1 "2005-01-26T14:56:12Z")
I’m a little surprised no one has so much as made a passing mention of this story, given the number of New York City Dopers. Maybe all of them are wise enough not to listen to this particular station. [NY radio station apologizes over tsunami slur](http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050124/3/1v6qi.html) > [@](#): > > A New York radio station apologized on Monday for repeatedly airing a joke song that ridiculed victims of the recent tsunami in South Asia and used racial slurs, saying the piece was in poor taste. > New York FM radio station WQHT, or HOT 97, ran the segment on its “Miss Jones in the Morning” show. The piece used racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster, made jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die. They played part of this song on a local station, which is where I first heard about the story. It’s a parody done to the tune of “We are the World”, a bad enough song in its own right, now embarassingly painful with the new lyrics. Here’s an excerpt I found [here](http://www.asianmediawatch.net/missjones/index.html), because no way am I Googling “chinks” at work. > [@](#): > > And all at once, you can hear the screaming chinks. > And no one was saved from the wave. > There were Africans drowning, little Chinamen swept away. > You can hear God laughing, ‘Swim you bitches swim.’ What the hell is wrong with people? ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/2 "2005-01-26T15:10:00Z")
Normally I’d write if off as the stupid shit that morning DJs do (why does anyone listen to those Godawful morning shows anyway??), but this is beyond the bounds of that even. 200,000+ dead people is not in any way a laughing matter, gallows humor be damned. Of course, the intelligence of these people is showing (how are “Chinamen” and “chinks” involved?), so I guess you can’t be too shocked. Unfortunately, they haven’t broken any laws (being an unbelievable asshole isn’t illegal), so nothing will come of it. Too bad, a few weeks community service burial detail would’ve given them a good idea how funny it all is. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/3 "2005-01-26T15:51:19Z")
Hilarious. :rolleyes: For some reason I am reminded of the Chicago morning radio show back when John Wayne Gacy was busted for serial murders. Someone did a version of Pink Floyd’s _Another Brick In The Wall_ with alternate lyrics including \*Hey! Gacy! Leave those kids alone. All in all it’s just Another kid in the crawl\*\* \*space. Not very classy, but a few cuts above the example in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/4 "2005-01-26T16:04:14Z")
I notice it was on a “morning show”. Well, knock me over with a feather! :rolleyes: I cannot tolerate morning shows. They seem to consist entirely of mean-spirited “pranks” and lame sexual innuendo so utterly lacking in subtlety that it can barely be called innuendo. Are people so pissed off on the way to work that they like this crap? Is it just that the listeners haven’t had their morning coffee and they lack the synapse firing to change the channel? Paging **MsRobyn** to explain this phenomenon! 😉 [Upon preview: Whoops, looks like I had this window open for awhile. Sorry to repeat what others have said. Just consider this a parody of a morning show where they feel the need to run every joke into the ground.] ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/5 "2005-01-26T16:04:23Z")
“Swim, bitches, swim.” Hahaha! It’s funny because they’re not white Christians, just silly little yellow and brown people. Assholes. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/6 "2005-01-26T16:26:54Z")
> [@jk1245](#): > > Unfortunately, they haven’t broken any laws (being an unbelievable asshole isn’t illegal), so nothing will come of it. Too bad, a few weeks community service burial detail would’ve given them a good idea how funny it all is. True, what they did isn’t _illegal_ (until being mind-bogglingly stupid is outlawed), but according to the AMW site, Miss Jones and her show have been suspended indefinitely, in addition to all seven of the “personalities” “donating” a week’s salary to the tsunami relief fund. If the FCC can fine CBS half a million dollars (or whatever) for a half-second exposed nipple, I hope they bury these people and black-list them from ever working in the radio business. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/7 "2005-01-26T17:14:06Z")
It’s even worse than you think. Someone grabbed an mp3 of one instance where they were going to play the song, and the only Asian-American member of that particular morning show made a point of saying that she neither had nor wanted any part of this bit. A shouting match between Miss Jones (headliner of the morning show/program director for Hot97) and Miss Info (Korean-American, news/gossip reader) ensued. > [@](#): > > _From [hiphopmusic.com](http://hiphopmusic.com):_ > On this tape you hear them introducing the “Tsunami Song,” then Miss Jones and co-host Todd Lynn launching into an abusive tirade against Miss Info when she voices her objection to it. Miss Jones finally tells Info she’s only complaining because “you feel superior, probably because you’re Asian.” > > Then, after Miss Info has said the song is offensive to Asians, co-host Todd Lynn informs her: “I’m gonna start shooting Asians.” Yes, he really says that. It’s at 3:37 on the mp3. :eek: More info at [hip hop music dot com](http://www.hiphopmusic.com). I don’t normally (read: ever) listen to hip-hop music, but this came up at [FARK.com](http://FARK.com) and like a trainwreck, I couldn’t look away. I too hope that they never find a job in broadcasting ever again. (Except Miss Info, perhaps) Rob Angry Asian American ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/8 "2005-01-26T17:57:08Z")
> [@LilyoftheValley](#): > > I notice it was on a “morning show”. Well, knock me over with a feather! :rolleyes: I cannot tolerate morning shows. They seem to consist entirely of mean-spirited “pranks” and lame sexual innuendo so utterly lacking in subtlety that it can barely be called innuendo. Are people so pissed off on the way to work that they like this crap? Is it just that the listeners haven’t had their morning coffee and they lack the synapse firing to change the channel? > > Paging **MsRobyn** to explain this phenomenon! 😉 > > [Upon preview: Whoops, looks like I had this window open for awhile. Sorry to repeat what others have said. Just consider this a parody of a morning show where they feel the need to run every joke into the ground.] Thanks. I’m not making excuses for this at all. However, stations are keenly aware of their demographic. Based on their [website](http://www.hot97.com/), I’d guess much of their demographic is probably still in high school. Stations that target high-schoolers tend to be much cruder than those that target adults; their logic (if you want to call it that) is that that’s what high schoolers like. And they’re not wrong. They get the numbers from the people they want. This station is what we’d call “urban/hip-hop”, and clearly it markets itself towards blacks. I’m wondering if they weren’t trying to appeal to a perceived animosity toward Asians. If so, it’s a cheap stunt. That said, there’s a difference between crude humor and outright racism. I can see whoever thought this was a good idea (and I’m not entirely convinced it was the DJ) fired. Hot97’s owner is a fairly large company that is responsible to stockholders; controversy like this isn’t good for business. Sure, they’ll get a short-term spike in ratings, but over the long run, it’s lousy, particularly if the FCC gets involved, which they might. Robin ---
**Author:** ![carimwc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac8455/32.png) [@carimwc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carimwc)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/9 "2005-01-26T19:21:01Z")
The “swim you bitches swim” isn’t even the worst part of the song. We downloaded it just to hear it. Oh god I was almost sick. I’m not sure what was worse- the lyrics right after that line or the fact that they added in a horrific Michael Jackson joke in with it. Just read that they were suspended indefinitely. Good. And McDonald’s, Jackson Hewitt and Sprint have stopped their adverstising with them for the moment. Big contracts there. Humor is fine in many contexts. This wasn’t humor. Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/10 "2005-01-26T19:34:37Z")
But at least the station had the good sense to hire [Lizzie Grubman](http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/26/quake.slur.reut/index.html) as their publicist. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/11 "2005-01-26T23:17:59Z")
In the Boston area, 2 DJ’s spread the “news” that Boston’s Mayor Menino had died. [http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20010809/LI\_003.htm](http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20010809/LI_003.htm) It was an April Fool’s Day (1998) “prank” and they figured this would be hilarious. (I bet you are rolling on the floor with laughter right now). Anyway, those 2 do NOT work for that station anymore. It may be a fine line between humor and bad taste but just about anybody should be able to judge when something has moved into the area of offensive and/or toally irresponsible. Unfortunately, 3 and a half years later, these clowns are back on Boston radio. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/12 "2005-01-27T00:01:44Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > In the Boston area, 2 DJ’s spread the “news” that Boston’s Mayor Menino had died. > [http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20010809/LI\_003.htm](http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20010809/LI_003.htm) > It was an April Fool’s Day (1998) “prank” and they figured this would be hilarious. (I bet you are rolling on the floor with laughter right now). > > Anyway, those 2 do NOT work for that station anymore. It may be a fine line between humor and bad taste but just about anybody should be able to judge when something has moved into the area of offensive and/or toally irresponsible. > > Unfortunately, 3 and a half years later, these clowns are back on Boston radio. Actually, Opie and Anthony are on XM satellite radio now. ---
**Author:** ![robotic\_panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@robotic\_panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robotic_panda)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/13 "2005-01-27T10:02:25Z")
I was surprised as well, i.e. the lack of pitting for this crap… I kept looking for a pit thread and figured if there wasn’t one by tomorrow then i’d have to.Thanks, **av8rmike**! My mom was watching Bill O’Reilly as usual, and we saw this. Now mom and I rarely agree on things, but we were just… speechless. We just looked at each other. What on earth made them think it was a good idea? Are there people that find this funny? I find lots of stuff funny, but this was the very definition of inhumanity. It definitely smacked of the idea “they deserved it.” What the fuck?!? You know what? Maybe it’d be fucking hilarious if some monster wave, I dunno, managed to crash into New York. That’d be the height of comedy, it would. Bodies washing up all over! Families lost! HA ha ha. Swim you Jewboys, swim! Jackasses. To the “creators” of this shiot: May your assholes weep the acidic blood of Satan himself. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/14 "2005-01-27T13:40:23Z")
I was also wondering why no one else Pitted these people, given the other multitudes of threads on equally stupid people… What really gets me about this whole deal is that this song didn’t just spring fully-formed from someone’s mind and appear on the air. [ul][li]Someone had to get the idea to write a song “poking fun” at a horrific natural disaster that’s killed hundreds of thousands.[/li][li]These people had to sit down and write the lyrics. “Hey, you know what I think this song needs? More ethnic slurs! Write ‘chinks’ in that line there.”[/li][li]Finally, they had to record themselves singing it.[/li][/ul]And yet, at no time did anyone say, “you know what, I think this song might be in poor taste.” A friend and I once wrote a parody we were going to perform, but halfway through writing the lyrics we stopped because we decided it was offensive. And it was much more tame than that piece of crap. Don’t these songs have to be approved by a programming director before they air? Is there no oversight at all? ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/15 "2005-01-27T13:58:44Z")
> [@RobuSensei](#): > > It’s even worse than you think. > > > [@](#): > > > > Then, after Miss Info has said the song is offensive to Asians See, this is the bit that I don’t understand. How is this ‘joke’ any more offensive to American Asians than it is offensive to anyone with a shred of humanity? Some people really are twisted, mean-spirited vermin. But just to show there are idiots everywhere; [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv\_and\_radio/4208135.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4208135.stm) Though I’d say this was positively mild in comparison, and even verging on mildly funny, just inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/16 "2005-01-27T13:59:17Z")
There’s also a question of appropriateness – even if this shit had been funny (which it just wasn’t) it’s just inappropropriate… too soon after too big a tragedy. I _like_ sick jokes – you know, Natalie Wood jokes, Challenger jokes, sick shit like that. But I’m careful of who I tell those jokes around. I used to hear a lot of them when I was in the Navy – I’d tell them to my shipmates, you know, but not to an officer I was reporting to. And I would have thought it damned inappropriate if my Division Officer had told me a dead baby joke – unlike my roommate, my DO didn’t know me well enough to know how I’d feel about it. So this ‘parody’ is fucked up on several grounds – it’s stupid and unfunny AND it was completely inappropriate. I can’t even fathom the thought processes that led to this hitting the air. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/17 "2005-01-27T14:28:32Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > “Swim, bitches, swim.” Hahaha! It’s funny because they’re not white Christians, just silly little yellow and brown people. Assholes. Uhhh … the parody was aired by a hip-hop/rap station. [The morning crew that are responsible for the song are definitely **not** white](http://www.hot97.com/airstaff/morningShow.aspx?origin=nav). Of course, only people in a position of power can be racist, so itthis is all still the fault of The Man. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/18 "2005-01-27T15:05:23Z")
No: [http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/wood/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1106807479291040.xml](http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/wood/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1106807479291040.xml) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-radio-people-have-any-brains-whatsoever/286763/19 "2005-01-27T19:10:49Z")
> [@av8rmike](#): > > Do radio people have any brains whatsoever? One does but [he’s in St. Louis](http://www.harrisonline.com) and his current station doesn’t have an internet feed. He’d be right at home in Great Debates.